Alan Grant Era (1989-1993)

With the Demon’s appearances in the 1980s, he was given, in 1989, a six-chapter serial in Action Comics Weekly, late in that title’s tenure as an anthology. Alan Grant wrote those stories, which didn’t end on a cliffhanger but also didn’t resolve their plotlines. When DC launched an ongoing Demon series in 1990, it would be written by Alan Grant.

This was the character’s first ongoing since Jack Kirby’s original 1972-1973 series. The new series would outlast the original by a wide margin, however. Grant remained on the title for over three years.

Grant’s take on the Demon differed from the more recent, serious take of writers like Alan Moore and Matt Wagner. Grant returned the character to Kirby’s bombastic sensibilities, although now with copious doses of black humor and silly wordplay. His version of The Demon was a wild, offbeat title. While never a best-seller, it is fondly remembered by fans of the character and survived his tenure, something no previous writer of The Demon could boast.